Robert Dukes after Veronese
Other writers (usually painters themselves) have written far more perceptively and intelligently than I ever could — I would urge anyone interested in drawing to read Patrick Heron’s essay on Constable’s drawings (1). Sargy Mann has written so well on Bonnard’s drawings (2) that I imagine anyone reading his commentaries on that artist comes away with an enriched experience. Both these artists write so well about the nature of drawing itself that it would be futile for me to try and do anything other than point you in the general direction of their writings (see list at end of this essay). Sargy Mann in particular explains very clearly the difference between illusionistic drawings (which only tell us what we already know) and “real” drawing.
Other writers (usually painters themselves) have written far more perceptively and intelligently than I ever could — I would urge anyone interested in drawing to read Patrick Heron’s essay on Constable’s drawings (1). Sargy Mann has written so well on Bonnard’s drawings (2) that I imagine anyone reading his commentaries on that artist comes away with an enriched experience. Both these artists write so well about the nature of drawing itself that it would be futile for me to try and do anything other than point you in the general direction of their writings (see list at end of this essay). Sargy Mann in particular explains very clearly the difference between illusionistic drawings (which only tell us what we already know) and “real” drawing.
Drawing and painting are
very closely combined. This might seem a surprisingly obvious statement: after
all, the act of painting could hypothetically be broken down into drawing,
colour and tone – yet some serious observational painters nowadays hardly draw
at all. For me, regular drawing (with a pencil) is necessary for me to “get my
eye in.” In order to perceive colour-shapes clearly, I need to draw first.
Drawing — really drawing — is really difficult!
“Drawing is an effortful activity.” Euan Uglow
The recent Daumier
exhibition in London was a perfect manifestation of his contemporary Delacroix’
opinion that “Cold exactitude is not truth.”
Line drawing is not putting
a silhouette around an object (the reason those who project a photograph on
their canvas and fill it in produce dead images). A good drawing like a good painting consists
of “shape(s)
made from a sense of mass, not a
sense of shape.” (Frank Auerbach)
On teaching drawing
From an interview with
Peter Greenham (who was head of the Royal Academy Schools in London)
How do you counter a
student’s idea of style?
PG: By drawing his attention to Leonardo’s
rain of shading, Seurat’s spots, Gilman’s language of ticks and dots. They all
go back to the fundamentals, the movement of the form in space, the planes. The
planes of the face are as wonderfully shown in Giacometti’s drawing of a skull
as in Holbein’s famous drawing of a head sheered in facets.
What are the most common
difficulties in teaching drawing?
PG: Doing something too different from
what the student is trying for: he may be after the wit of Daumier or the
Mexican grandeur of (Henry) Moore, but it is not likely to be both, so it is
best to show how the figure should stand on its feet, the head should be in the
right place above the hips, rather than fall into his way of seeing or depart
too much from it. (3)
Some drawings
I want to try to describe
some of the factors or qualities that really good drawings have in common,
using images by great painters as examples.
All the artists had/have in
common a desire to see things afresh and not get tied down to visual cliché,
and yet, all these artists copied others artists, had a profound understanding
of, you could say a dialogue with, the art of the past.
For example, three of the
most original and inventive artists of the last 150 years, Cezanne, Picasso and
Giacometti, all spent a great deal of time copying other artists; not just when
they were students but right up to end of their lives.
Matisse
Seurat “Two
men walking in a field”
Seurat used a heavy rag
paper called Michallet, and the way the tufts “catch” the Conte crayon only goes
some way to explaining the incredible depth of tone and subtlety of these
drawings.
Notice how important the
white trousers are to the composition of the drawing — in fact seeing the white
shape against the dark ground may have even been the reason the drawing was
made.
Also very subtle the way
the movement is depicted. The head slightly off centre, the elbows not quite
level, the left leg (right as we look at it) fading away from the knee
downwards — leaving us in no doubt that he is walking towards us, yet still
making a stable form that doesn’t upset the balance of the drawing.
Courbet
Portrait of the artist’s sister
Touching, sensitive drawing
from an artist often regarded more for his power.
Cezanne Study of Mont Sainte-Victoire, with a Tree
and an Aqueduct, c. 1883-1886
Cezanne Studies of Three Figures, Including a Self-portrait, c. 1883
Look at the figure on the
lower right of this drawing- Cezanne’s son asleep in a chair. Equal emphasis
given to all the forms- the way the back of his shirt “rhymes” with the arm of
the chair. “The whole thing (said Cezanne) is to put in as much rapport as
possible”. And Cezanne famously told his dealer Vollard (whose portrait
he was painting — Vollard had pointed out two small patches of bare canvas on
the painting and asked whether Cezanne could fill them in): “If
the copy I’m making at the Louvre turns out well, perhaps I will be able to
find the exact tone to cover up those spots.” The copy that Cezanne
refers to would be a drawing, not a painting. Which brings me back to my original
point- that painters should draw constantly, in order to see, and therefore to
paint.
Notes
Patrick Heron: Spatial
Colour in the Drawings, in “Constable: a Master Draughtsman” Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1994, ISBN 1 898519
10 2
Sargy Mann: “let it be felt that the painter was there…” in Drawings by Bonnard, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1984 ISBN 07287 04080
Peter Greenham: Norwich School of Art/Arts Council exhibition catalogue 1984 ISBN 09508 2481X
